


Family

by orphan_account



Series: TentenWeek2020 [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Platonic Relationships, Team as Family, team gai as family, tentenweek2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-06
Updated: 2020-03-06
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:07:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23043730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Having no blood ties to anyone, she always thought she was alone and that no matter how much she tied herself to people, that void would never be filled.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji & Maito Gai | Might Guy & Rock Lee & Tenten, Hyuuga Neji & Rock Lee & Tenten
Series: TentenWeek2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1653217
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Family

**Author's Note:**

> Another one-shot for TentenWeek2020. Yesterday I wasn't inspired at all - I really didn't know what to write and I preferred not to write anything, instead of writing something that I would probably hate. I have something for tomorrow but be ready for the feels, because this girl (me) for the first time will not ignore canon and write about Neji's death. Wish me luck, please.
> 
> As always kudos are really appreciated, and if you want let me know what you think.

_ “No good friends. No bad friends _

_ Only people you want, need to be with; _

_ People who build their houses in your heart” _

_ (Stephen King - It) _

  
  


*

  
  
  


Tenten lost her mother when she was really young, she never had a father so for a long time all she had was her mother. After she died of illness, when she was only five years old, her world went upside down and without knowing what she was supposed to do she decided the path in her life; being a Shinobi. Already looking up at Tsunade as the kunoichi she wanted to be, she made sure to always be ready. Being five years old didn’t stop Konoha from treating her like she was already an adult, they let her live alone (albeit giving her money to make sure she was eating and had a decent life). It was after her mother's funeral that she met Rock Lee for the very first time. He was too focused on his exercise, but when he saw her he smiled at her, and she smiled back - she remembers that she admired his energy and thought ‘I want to be like him’. 

And she remembers when she met Neji too. They met for the first time at the cemetery, he was there for his father, even though she didn’t know at the time, and she was there for her mother.

_ She’s crying while looking at her mother’s tombstone. She misses her so much that it takes her breath away. _

_ “Why are you crying?”, someone asks her. _

_ She looks up and there is a child next to her, his hair is long, a band covers his forehead. _

_ “I miss my mom,” she finally says. _

_ “Are you alone?”. _

_ “I am,” she nods without knowing what to say. Who cares if she’s alone? Certainly this child shouldn't care, they don’t even know each other. _

_ “I can keep you company, if you want.” _

_ Tenten looks into the eyes of that kind child. In his white eyes, pale and beautiful as the moon, she sees her own gaze. The gaze of a child who has grown too quickly, the gaze of a child who has lost the most important person in his life. _

_ “Okay.” _

  
  


Little did she know those two kids became her family, the only family she ever knew. Gai-sensei is the kindest person she ever met. He always encouraged all of them, guiding them towards their real passions. She felt so good, so loved, that she almost forgot the pain she felt for her mother’s death. In her room, in a closet that she never uses, there’s a box filled with her mother’s belongings. She never opened that box in fear that she might break apart. She goes to her room, opening her closet, and taking out the box. She sits on the ground, without knowing what to do.

Of course, she misses her. Of course she wants to have her photos around her house, and she wishes she could go to the cemetery without feeling the raw pain in her chest. She wished she was strong enough to open that damn box.

Someone knocks on her door, but she doesn’t have the strength or the desire to go open the door, or even to respond.

“Tenten?”, Neji calls her “Ten?”

“Should we enter? I’m worried about her,” Rock Lee says with clear concern in his voice.

“I guess so.”

“Dear students, is everything okay?”

“Tenten

“We are sure that Tenten is home, but…”

“The door is open?”

“Yes”

  
“We have to go in, we’ll apologize later,” Lee says with concern in his voice.

When the door opens she curls up on herself as she tries to hold back the intense emotion she is feeling.

“Tenten,” Neji whispers sitting down next to her, placing a hand on her shoulder “Ten?”

“What is that?”

“It’s a box.. With her mother’s belongings,” Gai-sensei sas “Everything she owned had been put in there after she died.”

She’s alone. This is what Tenten has always thought. Having no blood ties to anyone, she always thought she was alone and that no matter how much she tied herself to people, that voice would never be filled. But instead she found a family on her own; Gai-sensei is the father she never had, Lee the brother she never knew she wanted and Neji… well maybe he’s something more, but he’s still part of her family.

“Aren’t you curious about what’s inside?”, Lee asks “We can be with you, if you want.”

“Okay”, Tenten whispers “Yeah, stay with me.”

“Of course,” Neji replies.

When she finally opens the box she finds a picture of her mother, she had forgotten how much she looked like her. She has the same smile as her mother. She finds a couple of kunai on the bottom of the box, weapons that belonged to her mother. Obviously they are ruined, but it doesn't matter. There pages of her diary full of drawings of her favorite weapons.

“Apparently your mother was also fond of weapons, huh?”, Gai-sensei says with a smile on his face, sitting next to her.

“So it seems,” she whispers, nodding, “I forgot about her face…”

Suddenly she finds herself in Neji’s arms and after a few seconds Lee and Gai-sensei begin to hold her tightly, and she understands that sometimes a family doesn’t have to be blood ties. A group of people can be a family even when they have no connection to one another.

A family for which she would give her life, people who without her realizing it have filled that void in her heart, that hole that had the shape of an affection that she thought she had lost forever.

They are not just teammates.

They are family.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm trying my best to not make mistakes (English is not my first language) but if you see some mistakes please let me know!


End file.
